Title: Sibling Rivalry

Genre: InuYasha

Sub-Genre: Supernatural/Drama

Author: Yohko no Gothika

Author's Note: Yeah, I've decided to start running things a wee bit differently. You can review and tell me if you like or not. Anyway, the following chapter is set when InuYasha is six. His pet-name for Tamasine--"Futari"--means 'second person' in Japanese.

Disclaimer: InuYasha is property of Rumiko Takahashi.

Scroll 3 : Nostalgia

Izayoi was sick and it was aggravating. With his little sister to take care of, InuYasha's ream of chores had become constant and endless, and unbearably maternal to boot. For brief, but progressively more frequent intervals he found himself wishing he were an only child again, and, he began to add, an only child who lived with his father. His mother was always getting sick.

Perhaps it was the fact that he had never really loved any one else. Or perhaps it was, instead, that no one had ever really loved him. Whatever the reason, though, his love and adoration of her never stemmed, no matter how aggravating the tasks left to him. His sister was three; not much help at all, though his mother sent her along with him. "Futari," he'd grunt, calling her by the name he'd given her as a small child, don't do anything. You'd only mess it up." Then, no matter what it was--water from the well or frogs to be rid of in the garden--she'd rush to help him, and, yes, usually messed it up. She was quick learner, despite this (or perhaps thanks to this) and she didn't blunder it quite so often now. Atleast she wouldn't be one of those girls only interested in marriage, he found himself thinking when he looked at her. This was a good thing. To be a feminine hanyou was to be weak. Vulnerable. Futari...Tamasine couldn't afford to be either of those things. And neither could he.

With time the village boys had begun to accept him much more than their more uppity parents, and he longed to play with his new friends, kicking a well-crafted sack full of hay as a ball amongst the dust of the road between the houses. He was restless, picking listlessly at his work, or doing it quickly, sloppily, so that it had to be done over. It was behavior that both deeply trouble Izayoi from where she stood at the second story window and made her smile in the same instance: her baby boy was beginning to belong. Her little demon was turning into a foolhardy ningen child who wanted only to play every day of his life. It was a pity, she knew it. In this time she needed to talk to him most, she could not for fear of making him ill as well.

It was not long before InuYasha decided he had had enough of chores. He hadn't gone to the village for anything but bartering for a fortnight, and it was driving him mad not to be able to have fun. At the same time he was beginning to worry over his mother's failing health. She could no longer stand or move from her bed without help, and she had increasingly frequent fainting-spells which were entirely unpredictable, so all in all it was safer to keep her in bed for the entire day. Her coughing was getting worse, and it echoed into the empty halls long into the night.

In this huge house, so grandiose that even after several natural disasters and the undeniable shame InuYasha's illegitimate birth had brought upon the Taisho family, two servants were left out of the original thirty who had occupied the estate when Izayoi had been a small child as her own were. Koto and Buntsuchi looked somewhat related, with their long plated amber-black hair, but still looked young. Yet, it was obvious they could not be so young as they looked, when it was the two emerged from their Mistress' room with orders to find her children at once.

"Certainly, she can't be yet on her death bed?" Koto whispered to Buntsuki as they made their way quietly down the hall, and then down the long flight of tatami matted stairs to the first floor.

"I'm not so sure as you," Buntsuki replied, a slight accent in her words. "Izayoi-sama ne'er looked so somber as this before. She's got somethin to tell them...somethin important. I'll find Tamasine-imo, you find InuYasha-kun."

Author's Note: Buntsuki's addressing of her younger mister and mistress is translated quite plainly as "Little Sister Tamasine", and "InuYasha". As you can see, she is much less polite with them as she is with Izayoi, whom she refers to as 'sama' meaning "My Lord" or "My Mistress".

Far away, in the heart of the village, a wind had picked up and InuYasha's playmates had scattered as it was discovered to make the 'foot-ball' game impossible. Sullen-faced and sour, the six-year-old made his way home along the river, his two-year-old sister clinging to the left sleeve of his fire-rat cloak. The water looked eerily black and cold for spring, bereft of any life signs whatsoever: neither human nor animal stirred on its banks or in its foamy currents. If it weren't for the wind, InuYasha might have been tempted for the misty spring sunlight that shone over-head was hot. He wasn't, however. The water's fearsome coloration and activity were enough to frighten anyone off. It didn't usually act like this, which was unbearably troubling.

He was interrupted in pondering this by a sharp tug at his elbow and then the soft release of fabric as his sister toddled away from him in stumbling steps, heading towards the embankment of the stretch of river just behind them. "Hey!" he yelled, catching her attention as he ran after her. "What do you think you're doing?" he snapped as he grabbed her about the waist with one arm. "Home is that way!" He gestured avidly at the direction they'd been headed with his free hand.

"Mm!" Tamasine squirmed fitfully in her brother's arms. "Nooo," she whined, stretching her small, chubby arms out at the river bank. "Wandat, wandat!" she pouted, reaching for what InuYasha saw was a lotus on edge of the water.

"What are you, crazy? That's way to close to the water! You could fall in and drown and Mama'd never see you again!"

"Mm!" Tamasine squealed indignantly. "Wandat! Pri-dee!"

Author's Note: Okay, try to remember that Tamasine is a two-year-old. She's only recently started putting words into sentences, and her speech is pretty jumbled in comparison to her elders. If you're getting confused about what she's saying, either mail me or try prouncing it to yourself. (I guarantee people with younger relatives will have an easier time with this. HINT: It's said how its spelled.)

InuYasha groaned at his sister's unsatiable childishness. "Ugh! Fine! I'll get it for you!" he grumbled, setting her down. She gave another squeal, much happier this time, and clapped her hands rapidly. Slowly, her older brother made his way down the steep, muddy slope of the river bank towards the pearly white flower on the water's edge. It was a lot more slipper than he remembered. Maybe he shouldn't do this...but then again, one of them would end up doing it. Might as well be him instead of his little sister. Atleast he had a chance if he fell in. And besides, he never saw lotuses around anymore. They were impossible to find at this time of year.

He edged through the muck, towards his goal, and was finally able to feel the soft, velvety green of the flower's stem and began to ease it out of the sludge, careful to avoid damaging its roots or muddy-ing its perfect petals. Without much effort it was done, and he cradled it to his chest as he prepared to go back up again. This was always the hardest part of gardening, his mother told him: to get the flower out, and to get the flower in were two very easy propostitions relative to its tansporation from one place to another. Somehow he managed it without harming the plant. It was his clothing for which any reasonable person would've worried. All down his legs and of his feet were covered with mud. It was drying on the tips of his already waist-length hair, and spattered all over his sleeves and backside. He was thoroughly and unmanageably dirty.

"Ne! InuYasha-kun, totemo kitanai! How is it you have gotten so very filthy?!" Koto's dignified scolding frightened both siblings, and they jumped. They had not expected her to find them so soon. "You should be ashamed, to get so muddy when your mother has no strength to wash you! Butsuki and I shall have to do it!" she tut-tutted reproachfully, scooping them both up in her arms.

"Hey!" InuYasha yelled, disgruntled. "Put me down! I can walk!" He wriggled, trying to get free and in the process muddying Koto's cyan yukata.

"Hmph!" she said, releasing him. "I should say so! You will walk until we can get you clean!"

They made their way steadily homeward, surprising Butsuki at the gate. All of them were atleast a little muddy, and neither servant could see the worth or practicality of allowing them up to their mother's room in such a state. Both were carried (or half-dragged, half-wrestled, in InuYasha's case) to the bathing room on the first floor. The covers were lifted off of the baths and the steam billowed out as both siblings were dunked headfirst into the near-boiling hot water. When they were soaked to the skin, they were lifted onto the floor and scrubbed throroughly with expensive soap that smelled of vanilla, and rinsed with cool water, then dunked once more until their skins were pink with the heat and cleanliness. As soon as they had redressed in new clothes they were sent directly to their mother's room, with softly-uttered orders of silence they found unusually strict.

As soon as they were out of earshot up the stairs they began whisper amongst themselves.

"Whatduh Mama want?" Tama said quietly, turning her fingers once more upon her brother's sleeve, the lotus in her opposite hand.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "She's been really sick lately. Maybe she's getting better."

One cursory into their mother's room, however, clarified that she was most definitely not getting better. If anything she was much worse. The found her hunched against her headbored, coughing laborously into a tightly clenched fist, shivering precariously with the cold of the room. Her beautiful skin was a sickly sort of mustard they had never seen before and her breathing between coughing spasms was harsh and raspy. Her eyes were dull, wet and empty, as if the person behind them were not alive. Her bedclothes were drenched in cold sweat and she looked as if she could pass out at any moment. Her skin of her chest was flaming as both children ran to embrace it.

"Children," she sighed, her voice still sweet as it had always been but by ragged gasps as she breathed. Somehow, she lifted her arms to squeeze them as well, smiling with effort. "My children. I'm so glad to see you."

"Mama..." Tama said nuzzling into the fabric of her mother's silken sash. InuYasha bit down on his lower lip, burying himself in his mother's breasts, refusing to say anything. She kissed him on the top his head, and stroked Tamasine's furry dog-like ears with her hand.

Tamasine, Inuyasha," Izayoi breathed after a while. "You must listen to me. We...I do not have much longer. I am too sick...I have never been this sick before." InuYasha stared up at her, dread in the whole of his face. "You need to be strong...you need to...be prepared to go on...without me." She stopped talking in order to wheeze into a hand she cuped around her mouth just in time. "You need to know," she coughed,"that I love you. That I will always love you. That...you just have to be there for one another. You won't survive if you don't."

"No..." InuYasha murmured."No..."His voice was full of tears. He scorned himself for it. He couldn't cry. Crying was for girls. For babies. For little kids. But he couldn't help it. These words...why his mother saying these things? "Mama...no...you'll be fine...you just...you just..." He didn't know what to say. Why had she called him in here like this? He didn't want to hear this. Why was this happening? His mother couldn't die. Not here. Not now. No. She wouldn't die. There had to be something...anything he could do. He'd do it. Just to have his mother. His dear sweet mother who was more beautiful than anything in the world.

This world...would end without her.

Tama looked up at them both without a word as she fondled her mother's waist, and the lotus lay forgotten on her lap once they were issued from the room.

-----

He woke later that night to the sounds of muffled wails from his mother's room and the shif-shuf of zori as her corpse was carried from the house, the whit lotus blossom on her chest. Despite himself, he once more began to cry. He lay, curled beneath the suffocating warmth of his own blanket until he fell into another deep slumber, his cheeks wet with tears.

-----

In an instant, InuYasha's entire universe was flipped upside down. Even with their emtoional and spiritual dedication to their mistresses' now orphaned children, Koto and Butsuki were siezed up as property by the local state with their lady's death, and forced to leave. All InuYasha had left now was his home and his younger sister. The house was empty except for the two of them. The nights were lonely and they soon ran out of food. Out of desperation InuYasha turned to his friends, and then to thievery. The garden was left in immense disrepair as neither had ever truly learned to grow food for themselves and they both simply struggled to get to out of bed in the morning but for hunger. The loneliness of being orphaned was unbearable.

One night, InuYasha abandoned his bed, propping himself up near the wide, pane-less window. He tugged the straw screen down over it, finding the wind irratating and quickly fell asleep, his head lolled to one side, his back pressed against the hard cedar of his wall. It was a very light sort of sleep, only a soft cover from which to withdraw from the world, but it came easy, which was something that was no longer common. InuYasha felt that he actually enjoyed the feel of it, and proposed to do this more often before drifting ever deeper until the darkness enveloped him and he succumbed once more to fitfull dreams of lotus flowers, and wrathful rivers of ink.

He was awakened by a slight but perpetual nudging at his shoulder. "Oniisan..." he heard through the dark. "Oniisan...Wake upeez."

He groaned, and sat up groggily, staring into his younger sister's pale face. "What Tamasine?" he slurred, still partially asleep, disregarding her nickname because at the moment he was not bothering to recall it. "What is it?"

"Mama's gone."

At this he woke much more abruptly than he had been planning to.

"What did you say?"

"Mama's gone," she repeated unhappily. "Not in room. Ha'scary dweem. Wentuh see her. She not there. Mama's gone."

InuYasha stared at her. "Way to go kid. Congratulations. She's only been gone for 4 months, you little moron. Gawd, don't you know anything?" he snapped finally. She could be so dumb. 'Mama's gone'?! How long did it tak e her to realize that?! He glared at her with the questing sorrowful look on his younger sister's face. "Stupid!" He pointed to the full moon angrily. "She's been gone for four of those! And she's not coming back! So thanks for noticing! I mean, why did you think we've been all alone? Because she left on an errand? You're so stupid!"

There was crowded silence between them as Tamasine still looked at him with tears and questions in her eyes, and he glared back venomously. "Where she go? Where did Mama go?" she said finally.

"I don't know! But she's not here! She's never gunna be here ever, ever again! So just go back to your room!"

Tama watched him as the tears began to fall, and InuYasha's anger began to smolder against his will. Stupid...she's so stupid. I shouldn't feel bad...I don't feel bad! I mean...I'm only telling her the truth. Mama isn't coming back. It's her own fault for being stupid. But maybe...maybe I shouldn't have yelled at her...What am I saying? She deserved it! She deserved to be yelled at! That's what she gets for being stupid!

"I thought I said to get out of my room!" he yelled, making her jump. She hesitated, before scrambling out the door, down the hall and slamming her own.

-----

He couldn't sleep.

He hated this. It was so stupid. Why did he feel bad? Maybe he shouldn't have yelled. Mama would've said she was just a little kid and she couldn't help it if their were things she didn't understand. "Your sister needs your help InuYasha, not your repremands. That's what I'm here for."

But now she wasn't here. No one was here. No one was going to help him. Tama was all he had.

Maybe he should...go talk to her. She had ceased crying about twenty-minutes ago, and their confrontation was past by hours. She had only just turned two-and-a-half. She didn't know any better than what he could teach her. Oh...why did have to feel so bad?

His legs wouldn't listen to him as he told them to stop as they carried him down the hall, slowly plodding towards his sister's room. He didn't need to apologize. There was nothing to apologize for. She deserved it...she shouldn't have been so stupid.

The door opened with his breath and he found Tama sitting on her bed, her back turned to him. He walked, scowling to the foot of her matress, hauling himself up upon it by the sheets. It quivered beneath him as he did so, but Tama did not move from where she sat, curled over her knees in its center. He poked her and she did not move. She was asleep.

He sighed and got down again, but couldn't bring himself to leave to room. He watched her small sides rise and fall with her slow breathing and couldn't turn away. He reached up and touched her again from the side of the bed, softer this time, with his whole hand. She was warm. So comfortingly warm. Without really thinking, he mimicked what his mother had always done when the two used to share a bed. Carefully he wriggled the bedclothes out from under her and brought them up over her shoulders, lifting her small head and placing it on the feather-down pillow provided for such a purpose. She slept through it all. Like him, she was a very sound sleeper.

He yawned involuntarily and settled himself beneath her already shaded window, slipping into the half-sleep he had found earlier that night, basking in it.

He was awakened just a few moments later by light footsteps and warm body clinging to his neck and snuggling under his chin. He inhaled the soft vanilla scent of Tama's hair and hugged her to him absently, still half asleep. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. She did not seem to hear him.

The two slept in the same way for the rest of their lives together: InuYasha propped against the wood beneath a window, Tama curled in his lap, embracing him with all she had.

-----

OVER 50 YEARS LATER, IN THE WARRING STATES PERIOD OF MEDIEVAL JAPAN

InuYasha scanned the horizon from the branches of his tree, a troubled look on his usually-confident face. "Weird..." he mumbled. "I think Kagome...might be in trouble."

"Well then go help her, fool!" InuYasha jumped, momentarily startled at Shippo's appearance in his lap. "Why should I?" He growled, recovering himself. "She said not to come after her, and I don't see any good reason to disobey."

"Oh come on! If you think she's in trouble go get her! You've never listened to her before, why start now?!" Shippo was freaking out.

InuYasha cocked an eyebrow and lifted Shippo up by his tail. "Because that girl just told me to take a well deserved vacation. That's why. Besides, its probably nothing. I just need to pee or something."

Shippo sighed and gave InuYasha a grin. He had hoped he wouldn't have to resort to this, but oh well. "Oh, okay. Just don't go ape on me when you figure out Kagome's been eaten and the entire Shikon no Tama is floating in the guts of some worthless demon wannabe."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" InuYasha screeched at the top of his voice. "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WAS SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!!" Shippo yelled back, terrified but resolute. "GET OUT THERE AND SAVE YOUR WOMAN!!!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!!" InuYasha thundered. Shippo screamed and dashed away, towards the Bone Eater's Well but stopped short when he came to its edge. InuYasha, prepared to pounce upon his young friend, overleapt and tumbled into the depths of the well. Shippo could barely hear the foul language the older hanyou hurled back at him as he disappeared into the darkness. "Doo itashimashite," Shippo smiled.

-----

Kagome looked up at her savior, not quite sure what to think or do. The girl couldn't have been more than her age, but was shorter by about half a head. Her white hair glowed in the lighting, made faulty by the attacking demon, and it curled around the edges of her face, as if it were clinging to her without actually doing so. Two small, pointed black ears poked out of it. She wore a black, Yura-style shirt and poofy, fade-red capris that looked like a shorter version of InuYasha's, tied about the waist with a wide, blood-red sash that stretched from the top of her hips to just below her small bust. Kagome suddenly realized how similar the two looked: the ears, the hair, the pants...the girl even had claws and fangs like InuYasha! But she mentally shook herself for having such thoughts. A relationship between them was impossible. InuYasha lived in the Feudal Era...that had been over a century ago!

The girl put her hands on her small hips and chuckled. "My, not much to look at now are you?" she said loftily to the attacking Jidoku. "I've played with ugly things before, but you take the cake." The wounded demon, growled as picked himself up. "Watch your tongue wench," he snarled. The girl smirked. "You and I both know thats physically impossible. And besides, who's to make me? Not you, that's for certain."

"WE'LL SEE!!" the joukai roared, and he lunged for her. She dodged to the right, avoiding the blow with an offbalance, unsuspecting sort of ease, then dissapeared to reappear, balanced on one bare foot atop the astounded demon's outstretched arm, her own arms folded behind her head. "You mind if I take this guy out?" she said, turning to Kagome for the first time. Kagome, still in a slight state of shock, shook her head.

"Awesome." She cracked her fingers. "I've got to reorientate myself one way or another."

Jidoku, a look of strangled fury on his face, let out another bellow and swiped at the girl on his arm, but, unfortunately for him, this time she was ready. She sqautted and leapt into the air, his strike missing her completely. He swung an arm back to grab her, but again, to his dismay, she was ready.

"CLAW DAGGERS!" she yelled, and swung her raised arm down in an arc. She tumbled out of the air with the force of it, but not before making a large gash on the monster's arm. She landed, feet first, against the wall and sprang once again for her opponent.

Kagome's mind raced. This girl was like InuYasha...there was no doubt. But she was just so much more graceful. He might've crashed into that wall just to prove he could survive it, but she either had more brains than he did or a smaller ego. She was alot more acrobatic. Suddenly something struck her. She had said that this girl could kill the demon...but wasn't the demon Hojo? "Oh no..." she gaped.

But it was too late. Jidoku, bellowing in pain, swung again at her but missed by a long shot. "CLAWS OF EXORSISM!" she screamed, coming down on his body instead of his arms.

Jidoku let out a final blood-choked yell and fell to the floor.

-----

InuYasha knocked the door to the well shrine open with his knuckles, the eerily strong evening wind immeadiatly taking the opporitunity to whip his face. He brushed his bangs aside irritably. "That idiot Shippo..." he grumbled. "I swear I'll get him for this. There's not anything remotely wrong with Kagome."

Sota came outside at that moment, carrying a lethargic Buyo and a watering can. " 'Kagome's not home yet Sota...' 'Do her chores for her Sota...' 'Not like I have any consideration for you Sota...' 'Take the cat out and water the plants Sota...' Darn it, when she gets back, I swear I'll get her for this," he grumbled. He abruptly stopped when he noticed InuYasha's presence. A big grin stretched itself across his face. "Hey InuYasha. What brings you here?" InuYasha gave an incoherent grunt. "Shippo," he said finally.

Sota set Buyo on the ground, and set about to watering the plants, still talking to his half-demon friend. "Well, if you're looking for Kagome, you'd better check at the college. She hasn't come home yet, and Mom's really worried. And if you want to know the truth, I am too, kinda. Just not all too happy about having to do her chores is all." InuYasha looked down at him, his eyebrows raised. Sota turned to the street behind them both. "Okay see this street?" he said pointing. "Now you go that way" he pointed right "turn that way" he pointed left "and keep going straight until you reach the biggest building you've ever seen!" he said, exagerated the height with his hands and arms. "It's white, can't miss it."

"Okay, hopefully I can manage that." InuYasha sighed, face contorted in a look of disgust. 'I can't believe I actually have to go pick up Kagome at school. Give me a break. Isn't that what her mother's for?'

A sudden gust of wind caught him off guard with a smell he hadn't smelled here in a long time. Demon blood. It was only a tinge of scent, a miniscule tainting of the breeze, but he could smell it. Lots of demon blood. Coming from the direction of Kagome's school. He raced off without a moment's hesitation, forgetting Shippo's directions and whole-heartedly following his nose. He grinned as he caught a whiff of Kagome in the air as well, and cracked his kuckles mid-flight. This could be alot more fun than he had first suspected.

-----

The dog-girl landed on the floor and stretched her arms upwards, towards the ceiling. "Ah...now THAT feels good," she sighed, her vertibrae popping. She looked back on a horror-struck Kagome. "What in the seven hells is the matter with you?"

"You...you KILLED him..." Kagome murmered.

"Very observant."

"But...you...you didn't have to KILL him..."

"What'd you want me to do, give him a hug? Anyway, this makes you and I almost even. You free me, I do something for you, that's the way it goes."

Kagome's lip trembled. "Poor Hojo..." She should've gone out with him. Or helped him find someone else. She should've done something...anything. He didn't deserve this.

The dog-girl sighed. "Oh come on. Don't tell me it had a name. What are you, some idiot miko or soemthing?" Suddenly she stopped and looked at Kagome for the first time. She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes slightly. "...What'd you say your name was again?"

Kagome looked up. "Me? My name? Oh, it's--"

Suddenly the two were interrupted by a louded rumbling from above them, and they both looked up. The girl suddenly grabbed Kagome by the waist and bowled her over. A large chunk of cement ceiling hit the floor with a ear-splintering thud, and both girls shielded their eyes, coughing at the dust. There was suddenly a loud crash as the alunimum elevator hit the floor and crumple into a distorted heap of metal. More hunks of conrete fell all around them and falling equipment missed them by inches.

"KAGOME!" hollered a familiar voice down the elevator shaft. Kagome choked back fear and replaced it with unbridaled rage. "This BETTER be an ugly joke Sota's playing or I swear..." she muttered to herself. The dog girl looked at her curiously, but she ignored it.

InuYasha, hair flowing, landed on the remains of the elevator and jumped onto the ground. He sniffed once. Yep, she was definitely here. He noticed the carcass of a demon and walked over. It's blood was just barely dry; it couldn't have been dead for more than a few minutes."Hmph," he grunted, giving it a kick. Must've come after the Shikon no Tama. No small wonder either. She should've left it with him. He folded his arms and started sniffing. "That's weird..." he grumbled. "It smells like...nah! Couldn't be."